Maxxis Razr AT811 vs Falken WildPeak AT3w: The Razr AT811 is the flagship offering from Maxxis. The all terrain tire is very aggressive for it’s category, that’s why we consider it as a hybrid. Falken Wildpeak AT3w on the other side is less aggressive in comparison and is just an good old all terrain tire.
Hybrid tires have mixture of two tires. In case of Maxxis Razr, the tire has a aggressive shoulder blocks of a mud terrain tire and the central tread blocks of all terrain.
Examine the treads on these tires closely. They hold the key to knowing which to choose. In fact if you visit my "tread design" page, picking the right tire would never bother you.
Let’s kick things off with their designs.
Table of Contents
Side By Side Comparison
Falken Wildpeak AT3w
Maxxis Razr AT811
If we move things from the Maxxis Razr AT811, the tire provides you with 3 unique pairs of blocks which can be visualized by looking at the highlighted tread below.
All these blocks have sharp edges where if you look close enough, you’ll see notches on green and red ones, and chamfered edges on blue ones.
Other than that, these blocks are equipped with rectilinear sipes which go all the way deep down to the tread’s base.
Moreover, all these blocks make outer two wider longitudinal channels which are interconnected by straight forward lateral channels (this provides with efficient water, dirt and mud cleaning).
If we look at it’s competitor, Falken Wildpeak AT3w is less aggressive of course, but the tire still provide some decent biters.
For example the Z shaped blocks in the middle have ramps on sides, and the surrounding C shaped blocks are equipped with notches and foundation supports.
And yes, this tire just like the Maxxis Razr, also makes outer wider channels interconnected by lateral ones.
Moving on, let’s talk shoulders, again starting from Maxxis Razr, it offers staggered blocks with mud scoops installed. And the blocks join the sidewall lugs which offers better off road traction.
On Falken Wildpeak AT3w again things are not aggressive, but still its not too far off either.
The tire makes saw toothed edges over here, as you can see ramps on the outer margins (each block is serrated on itself).
The U shaped sidewall lugs which join the shoulder blocks are although not so thick comparatively, they still provide a powerful bite off road when you lower down the PSI levels.
Info about their sizes:
For Maxxis Razr AT811, sizes are available between 15 to 24 inches (rim size), where both in 24 and 15 inches you only get a single size, 37X13.50R24LT and 31X10.50R15LT.
Load rating goes all they way up to F, tread depth averages about 15/32″ and weight ranges from 30 to 85 lbs.
On Falken Wildpeak AT3w, more sizes are available, but they range from 15 to 22 inches. Load rating goes all the way to C just like it’s competitor, and weight ranges from 35 to 84, so it’s almost similar.
The highlighting feature of the tire is tread depth, and it goes from 12 (only 2 sizes) to a whopping 19/32″ and this averages to about 17/32″ if we take all sizes in account. Wildpeak offers deepest tread in the category, as this much tread depth is mostly seen on mud terrain tires.
Are these tires tough enough?
Yes, they are pretty tough. But first consider this, why these tires need to be durable, well because off road, there are a lot of things that can pierce through the tire, and the most vulnerable part is on sidewalls.
Having said that, the Maxxis Razr provide you with 3 ply polyester construction with 2 steel belts running on top and 2 more layers of nylon.
On the other side, the Falken Wildpeak has same 2 steel belts and nylon, but the polyester casing inside, is only 2 ply.
So as the nylon and steel belts don’t cover the sidewalls, the Maxxis Razr becomes 3 ply whereas the other becomes 2 ply. But Falken Wildpeak provides 2 more layers of polyamide on top of everything else and these layers run around the tire’s rim/bead.
So overall, if not more, Wildpeak provides similar durability, even being the less aggressive off the two.
On Road Traction:
Falken Wildpeak AT3w with less aggressive tread, is able to perform better here.
Besides providing more surface area of rubber to be in contact with the road (which enhances friction), the tire offers softer blocks which sticks better.
These softer blocks aids the tire a lot in wet traction, where because of it, the sipes are made very flexible and they suck in the water particles efficiently as the tire moves on.
The Maxxis Razr AT811, on the other hand, although provides satisfactory traction on road, lags a lot on wet pavements.
It has very less total number of sipes, and although this provides good off road traction, it does offer efficient water cleaning. That’s why the tire is prone to slippage while cornering.
Comfort and Noise:
The Maxxis Razr AT811 is very loud despite offering various pitches to handle the tread noise levels. The wider grooves of it’s tread allows more air to come in and strike around (on blocks), producing noise.
And although the tire’s composition is softer in general, it’s still less effective in absorbing the bumps (in comparison).
Falken WIldpeak AT3w, on the other hand, provides better comfort as it features a softer and more elastic rubber compound, so bumps, vibrations and imperfections of the road are easily smoothed out.
Furthermore, the tire’s tread depth also helps here. With more rubber between your vehicle and the surface, the bumps are dissipated a lot better.
Winter Traction:
Winter traction is dependent on a few things, here a tire needs a narrow section width, it’s design should be able to capture snow in the grooves and it’s compound should be soft enough to bear the freezing temperatures. All these features are seen in winter tires.
And although you can not expect the same winter tire performance (compared to winter tires), they are still good enough to earn 3 peak mountain snowflake rating.
Both tires have a softer compound, and enough biters, but Falken Wildpeak AT3w provides you with a slightly skinnier tire which has a more silica density in it, so overall better performance is seen here (with narrow width, more pressure on the snow is deposited, and with this, more snow gets lodged in tread (providing snow to snow contact).
On the other side, the Maxxis Razr AT811 is going to provide you superior traction in deep snow, as the tire with wider grooves, provide better & bigger tread mouth to grab the snow.
Which tire lasts longer?
Out of the two, although Falken Wildpeak AT3w has a slightly softer compound, it’s still going to last longer. That’s because the tire offers larger tread depth, which means more time to rub off the rubber. And with less wider grooves, the on road optimization of the tire is better, so less wearing is seen.
It also provides heat diffusers along the bead, which release the heat which could otherwise act as a catalyst in overall wearing process.
On the other side, the Maxxis Razr would wear faster on roads and with less tread depth the tire would provide less life in comparison.
The Maxxis Razr has 50k miles tread warranty (on LT sizes), whereas the Falken Wildpeak AT3w offers 55,000 miles warranty.
Performance on rocks:
The Maxxis Razr AT811 has more features helping it on rocks, like the bulkier sidewall lugs which when lowered pressure provide better biting abilities.
The wider grooves provide this tire with bigger groove mouth which bite in to the surface of the rocks.
Falken Wildpeak AT3w does not offer stone ejectors, so on gravely roads, the tire is going to feel more jittery, and with this it also becomes prone to damage, though, it has cut & chip resistant rubber like it’s competitor.
Can they handle mud?
Mud is one of the toughest terrains out there, that’s why more aggressive tires like M/Ts exist. On muddy terrains an effective tire would be the one which can efficiently self clean mud off it’s tread.
That’s because if mud gets packed on tread, the tire loses all it’s friction, as mud to mud contact creates none.
Now comparing both tires, it’s obvious to see why Maxxis Razr is better here. It’s wider grooves simply allow more area fro mud to pass through, while it’s alternating scalloped edges act as traction scoops.
Wildpeak does not offer properly scalloped shoulder blocks with concave shaped scoops, so it like to dig more instead of going forward, and on mud, you don’t want that.
So To Sum Up:
The Maxxis Razr AT811 being a hybrid tire offers overall better performance off road, while the Falken Wildpeak AT3 although is not too far off, on rugged terrains, it’s very superior when it comes to traction on pavements, both in dry and wet conditions.
On snow again Falken Wildpeak AT3w shines, despite both of them having been rated with 3 peak mountain snowflake rating.
